Women's history -- We see it in the making -- Column of March 3, 2022

 By MARSHA MERCER

It’s hard to imagine a better start to Women’s History Month.

As President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address March 1, Kamala Harris, the first woman and first woman of color elected Vice President, and Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House, sat in the power seats behind him.

Next to first lady Jill Biden in the gallery was Ukraine ambassador Oksana Markarova. Prompted by Biden to show their support of the brave Ukrainians at war with Russia, the assembled leaders of the federal government gave the ambassador thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

Days before, Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to the Supreme Court.

“For too long, our government, our courts, haven’t looked like America,” Biden said Feb. 25, announcing his first Supreme Court pick. “I believe it’s time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation, with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Jackson will become the fourth woman associate justice on the nine-member court. Her addition will not change the ideological makeup of six conservative and three liberal justices.

Biden has praised Jackson as “one of our nation’s top legal minds,” a “consensus builder” and her experience as a former federal public defender.

Jackson, 51, a Harvard University and Law School graduate, would replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who is retiring and for whom she was a law clerk early in her career.

Beyond being a historic first, Jackson, a former special counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, would also bring to the court a unique personal and professional perspective on criminal justice.

Her uncle received a life sentence in 1989 for a nonviolent drug crime under a “three-strikes” law. Year later, President Barack Obama years commuted the harsh  sentence, The Washington Post reported.

Confirmation hearings are scheduled for the week of March 21, and a full Senate vote could take place in mid-April. That still would be more time than Republicans took to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the court in October 2020.

Confirmation requires a simple majority, but nothing is simple in a Senate that is split 50-50 between the parties. Jackson, a federal judge since 2013, was confirmed just last year to the appellate court 53-44, with support from three Republican senators -- Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

But Graham has indicated he now may oppose Jackson as the choice of the “radical Left.” Republicans are expected to concentrate their questioning on her judicial philosophy.  

If all Democrats and independents are present and vote in favor of Jackson, Harris could cast the tie-breaking vote, although Democrats hope a few Republicans will back Jackson. 

Confirmation would be a historic first for Biden, too. In his official proclamation of Women’s History Month, the president touted his Cabinet as “the most diverse and gender-balanced” in history, including the first women to serve as Treasury Secretary and Director of National Intelligence, the first Native American woman as Cabinet secretary, and women leading the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development.

Women have also made gains in state government. The most women ever serve in state legislatures, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

In Virginia, the 2021 election brought a record number of women – 35 – to the House of Delegates and elected the first woman of color statewide, Republican Winsome Sears, as lieutenant governor.

Women’s History Month gives us the opportunity to reflect and celebrate the contributions of women in American history and to inspire – much as a young Black girl was inspired years ago by Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman federal court judge.

“We were born exactly 49 years to the day apart,” Jackson said at the White House. “If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed . . . I can only hope that my life and career, my love of this country and the Constitution, and my commitment to upholding the rule of law and the sacred principles upon which this great nation was founded will inspire future generations.”

Let’s hope the Senate gives her that chance.

 ©2022 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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Will nine justices in black robes be ultimate electors? -- Oct. 29, 2020 column

By MARSHA MERCER

President Donald Trump beamed like a proud papa and Republicans cheered at Amy Coney Barrett’s swearing-in show on the White House lawn Monday night.

The president and Senate Republicans had successfully rushed Barrett through the confirmation process as an associate justice on the Supreme Court before the election.

In one fell swoop, they bolstered their standing with GOP voters and took out an insurance policy in the event a razor-thin presidential election prompts legal challenges.

Voters should know Trump has long sown distrust in the electoral process and has laid the groundwork to contest the results if Democrat Joe Biden wins.

As in 2016, Trump refuses to say he will accept the election result, repeatedly claiming the only way he can lose is if it is rigged or stolen.

On Sept. 23 Trump told reporters he wanted nine justices in place because they may need to decide the election. He has appointed three justices, cementing a 6 to 3 conservative advantage.

Armies of lawyers on both sides are suiting up for post-election battle.

Without evidence, Trump continues to insist mail-in voting is ripe for Democratic fraud. Trailing in the polls in several battleground states, he is unwilling to let election officials take the time necessary to count mail-in ballots.

Most states require ballots to be mailed by Election Day, but several allow days or weeks for the postal service to deliver them and election officials to tally the votes.

In Virginia, mail-in absentee ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by noon Nov. 6. Voters who haven’t mailed their ballots can hand-deliver them to their polling place on Election Day. Virginia results will be certified Nov. 16.

On Election Night in some states, including Virginia, localities will report in-person Election Day results first. Since Trump voters are likely to vote in person and Democrats by mail, Trump could take an early lead but lose it when absentee and mail-in ballots are counted.

That’s why Trump’s insistence “Must have final total on November 3^rd” is self-serving and just plain wrong.

“It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on Nov. 3rd, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate,” he told reporters Tuesday.

Everyone wants election results as soon as possible, but we all need patience so the process works fairly.

A week before Election Day, more than 64 million Americans had already voted, with about half of the votes in the dozen or so competitive states that will decide who wins the Electoral College, The New York Times reported.

So how could the election come down to nine justices in black robes?

Many younger voters won’t remember 2000, the too-close-to-call presidential race in Florida and the recounts, lawsuits and intense scrutiny of “hanging chads” that followed.

Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote nationwide, but the Electoral College is what counts.

With Republican George W. Bush ahead in Florida by only 537 votes, the dispute went to the Supreme Court, where a 5 to 4 vote on Dec. 12 halted the Florida recounts, essentially delivering the state’s 25 electoral votes and victory to W. The five justices who ended the Florida recount were nominated by Republican presidents. Democrats cried foul.

Trump now hopes the court will smile on him. His campaign and the Republican party challenged ballot deadline extensions in several battleground states that were favored by Democrats because of coronavirus concerns.

Before Barrett joined the court, justices blocked a deadline extension in Wisconsin, where a federal judge had said mail-in ballots could be counted for six days after Election Day if they were postmarked by then. The justices said counting must end Election Day.

But the highest court Wednesday rejected GOP requests to overturn ballot extensions in two other key states, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, where the extensions came from the state Supreme Court and state elections officials, respectively.

Barrett, whose first day on the job was Tuesday, had not had time to review the cases and did not participate.

Voters, the time for dilly-dallying is over. In Virginia, in-person absentee voting ends Oct. 31. You can still vote Tuesday. Just do it.

©2020 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

Learning from a messy presidential debate -- Oct. 1, 2020 column

By MARSHA MERCER

Not that time stood still during the first presidential debate, but at one point I desperately checked the clock: How much longer can this last?

The 90-minute dumpster fire, street brawl, fiasco, expletive-deleted storm – pick your description -- still had nearly 30 agonizing minutes to go.

The way President Donald Trump behaved, he seemed determined to ensure he’d never again have to debate Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump broke the debate rules his campaign had agreed to, insulted Biden repeatedly and made many baseless claims.

His blab-athon – by one count he interrupted Biden or moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News more than 120 times – was over the top.

It was classic, classless Trump -- shocking but not surprising.

Trump is a showman, and his fans love his “gladiator” style. This time, even his allies said his jabs missed the mark.

Biden did not take Trump’s bait. He mostly kept his cool, though he called the president a “clown” and said, “Shut up, man,” when Trump was talking over him. Vigorous and sharp, Biden was not the least bit sleepy.

This doesn’t mean Biden’s performance was flawless. In a rare policy moment, he refused to say whether he supports ending the filibuster in the Senate or adding justices to the Supreme Court, both favored by progressive Democrats.

Trump again refused to offer any details of his supposed health care plan.  

The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates promised Wednesday to consider format changes so the two remaining presidential debates will be more substance oriented. Good luck with that.

Trump who trails Biden in most polls, tries to deflect attention from his record on the coronavirus by sowing confusion and distrust in our revered institutions – public education, public health and the electoral process, among others.

The president continues to claim, falsely, the only way he can lose is if Democrats steal the election.

The presidential winner should be decided Election Night, he says, even if millions of mail-in ballots are uncounted. He wants to install Amy Coney Barrett as the ninth Supreme Court justice to help settle the election.

Without evidence, he constantly claims Democrats will flood the polls with fraudulent votes and voters. Meanwhile, voter intimidation and suppression are in the air.

Trump and his family are recruiting an “army” of supporters to watch for fraud at early voting places and on Election Day.

“We need every able-bodied man, woman to join Army for Trump’s Election Security Operation,” Don Trump Jr. said in a video the Trump campaign posted on social media Sept. 23.

President Trump told Sean Hannity on Fox: “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement and we’re going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys” at the polls.

But when Trump observers tried Tuesday to enter early voting places in Philadelphia, they were turned away. Trump tweeted:

“Wow. Won’t let Poll Watchers & Security into Philadelphia Voting Places. There is only one reason why. Corruption!!! Must have a fair Election.”

Three exclamation points do not make corruption the only possible reason poll-watchers were denied entry. As usual there’s more to the story.

Tuesday was the first day of early voting in a few satellite locations where people could register and vote. Rules are different at those locations than at regular polling places, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Election officials are also following safety restrictions because of the pandemic, the paper said.

Every state sets its own election rules. In Virginia, a poll watcher must be registered to vote, and the state limits on the number of poll watchers allowed per party in polling place.

As we go into the final weeks of the 2020 campaign, we can expect more Trumpian efforts to erode confidence in the election.

But remember this: Our neighbors, mostly volunteers, work the long hours at the polls and tabulate the ballots. State officials, not Trump, certify the winners.

I’ve been a city poll worker, and I know how hard these volunteers work for a fair election.

After the debate, analysts kept using the same word to describe it: chaos. Messy and stinky work too.

I won’t be surprised if democracy’s longest hour and a half was a preview of the election chaos ahead.

©2020 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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